Women workers to gain more with new association

V.K. Chin The Star Asia News Network Selangor, Malaysia

The proposed Malaysian Association of Working Women (MAWW) should give the trade union movement, especially the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC), some serious food for thought.

According to MAWW's pro tem president Silam Hassan, the new organization was necessary because many of the issues affecting women workers were not properly dealt with by the existing unions.

This is just telling the trade unions that they have been neglecting the rights and benefits of the female workers or at least such issues have not been given prominence by the movement.

After so many years, perhaps the time has come for the women workers to have their own body to highlight and champion their problems and surely it has its work all cut out.

With women forming almost half the workforce, it is only logical that there is an association especially as almost all the present trade unions are male-dominated.

However, Silam is quick to point out that MAWW is an association and not a trade union in order to attract women employees from all levels and this will make it numerically stronger to lobby for its cause.

So its membership will be open to all women workers irrespective of their positions and this should be welcomed by female executives who find themselves mostly in limbo as there is no organization to represent them.

They cannot be union members because as executives they are not allowed to join a trade union and so if they should be given unfair treatment, such as being paid a lower salary than their male colleagues or not being promoted because of their sex, there is no one to help them.

With the proposed association, such executives can at least approach MAWW to make representations on their behalf to their employers or to the relevant ministry or department dealing with such cases.

If MAWW should remain neutral and non-political, then it should be able to attract members in droves and can be an organization to be reckoned with in championing the rights of the female workers.

Two of the outstanding issues concerning women workers are maternity leave and child-care support and those who take leave for this purpose may be blacklisted by their employers.

Some of them will lose out on wages and seniority if they should take more than the stipulated two-month maternity leave and this is something that the new association would like to put right.

If properly organized and with the right leadership, MAWW can be a powerful lobby to get both employers in the public and private sector to provide more facilities to encourage married female workers to remain in the workforce.

Otherwise many of them will just leave to look after their children because of the lack of support by the employers and the difficulty in getting good maids to care for their loved ones.

The new organization should get the full support of both the Ministry of Women and Family Development and the Ministry of National Unity and Social Development, which are responsible for looking after the welfare of women in general.